ARE YOU AN

INSIDER

How to Maintain Your Brow Shape Between Appointments (Sans Tweezers)

You can tweeze the strays all you want, but there’s no comparison. When you leave freshly groomed from a professional’s chair, your brows are nothing short of selfie worthy. A couple of weeks later, the shape is still there, the tint is holding on, and yet they don’t look quite as spectacular as they should. After over a decade of regular brow waxes and, more importantly, a few sessions with brow master Tonya Crooks, I’ve figured it out. If you want your eyebrows to look their best between appointments, you need to make a simple tweak to your brow shaping technique. Scroll through to find out what you’ve been missing!

The Tools

The forgotten step? Trimming. Like the rest of your hair, your eyebrows grow (and quickly). When they do, they outgrow their shape, obscuring your beautiful arches. Snipping the lengths can bring your shape back to its former post-wax glory.

Don’t be afraid—Crooks assures us (and I can confirm) bringing a pair of scissors to your brows is not as scary as it sounds. But the tools are important. Look for a pair of scissors with short blades and straight ends, like The BrowGal’s Brow Scissors ($28). “Longer blades leave more room for error,” Crooks says. You’ll also need a spoolie brush. We like Smith Cosmetics’ Spoolie Brush ($22), but the one on your brow pencil works too.

The Technique

Step 2: Work in sections. “In the front they’ll often grow straight up and down,” Crooks says. To begin, brush the front up and trim very slightly along the natural top edge of the brow.

Step 3: Brush through the midsection of your brow. “As you move through the brow, hairs often grow down,” Crooks says. “Brows have cowlicks and curves in them, and you need to determine what nuances your own brows have, to get the cleanest cut.” You should not brush everything up and cut. Brows are not uniform, so you will hit low spots if you’re not careful. Get in close, look at which direction the hairs are growing, and “very gently, very conservatively” cut the just the tips of the visible hairs.

Step 4: Brush through the end of the brow, and trim the very ends. Then you can brush through again to see if any hairs are sticking out or hanging down—if so, repeat. Crooks emphasises it’s best to take a conservative approach—you can always trim more.